Give the people what they want

Gary Vaynerchuk calls it in today’s episode of Wine Library TV when he asks, “Why should we decide?” He poses that question in regards to his upcoming tour to promote his new book of wines.

Rather than presume the best cities and dates for a successful book tour, Gary opens it up to his legions of Vayniacs to decide all of that for him. If they can arrange the dates with the bookstores in their hometowns and confirm 150 attendees per location, he’ll be there. It’s Web 2.0, as he says. The point of the Web is to let people to connect with one another and to wield control over the content and conversation. Gary clearly understands that if he cedes control to his fans, they will benefit and so will he. He’ll arrive to bookstores packed with adoring viewers, surely a win-win scenario that will give fans a chance to meet their idol and Gary a chance to sell more books. Aside from being a kind gesture, it’s also a brilliant marketing move that should result in higher conversion rates at the tour events. And really, isn’t he just recognizing the obvious – that New Media isn’t so much about the content creator as it is about the consumer? Isn’t the once-yawning gap between viewer and programmer suddenly a lot narrower? And isn’t that a beautiful thing?